An exhaustive and authoritative investigation into the Christadelphians with links from their own sources as well as insights from former members. Complete examination of their history, organisation, theology, practices, and the challenges they face.

Becoming a True Christadelphian Believer

There is an article on this site dealing with the
Process of Conversion and how the community seeks to convert people.
This article is about the process of becoming a believer from the perspective of
those who are looking into the Christadelphians.

The first thing to appreciate is that unlike many Christian churches there is rarely
any appeal to emotion and little effort is made to engage the emotions of visitors.
The nature of conversion therefore is primarily intellectual. From a Christadelphian
perspective this has been described as “conviction rather than emotionalism.”
Some people can find this very cold and rationalistic, others find the emphasis
on logic and intellect more satisfying.

For the newcomer it is therefore a church which presents the convert with an intellectual
challenge. The claim is to “have the Truth” and the challenge to the newcomer
is to search it out from scripture. To become a believer it is therefore necessary
to reach a certainty on a whole series of doctrinal statements, which historically
have been summarised in statements of faith such as the
Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith.

Since no group held Christadelphian beliefs prior to the founder John Thomas setting
out his unique views it is rather difficult to actually do what potential believers
are told to do. In short they are commended to independently search and check
scripture. At the same time those associated with them are expected to do
that under the constant pressure of having positions “proven” to them. As
someone who was brought up in a Christadelphian family that pressure can be very
intense. It also has the effect of reducing the individual ability to be fully
independent minded and the Christadelphian belief that individuals can in fact be
totally independent minded is one worthy of further consideration.

The difficulty in becoming converted as a Christadelphian is therefore that of becoming
fully convinced that they hold “the Truth.” This is not simply a difficulty
for outsiders, it is also a real challenge for those who are brought up as Christadelphians
who can experience extreme pressure. In the community it is not unusual for
potential friends to attend for years before “committing.” It is not simply
the commitment in fact that presents all the difficulty, it is the difficulty in
becoming convinced.

To understand this we have to look at what is entailed in the process.

The historical claim of the Christadelphians is that salvation is predicated upon
having correct beliefs. Repentance for sin and faith in Jesus are insufficient.
Having the right spirit and leading a good life will not save. The position
is that intellectual correctness is essential for salvation and the method taught
generally is a method which is based upon proof texting. In other words Christadelphians
will jump around the Bible and bring up verses to prove doctrinal statements.

Christadelphians are strong believers in the
infallibility of the Bible and the sufficiency of the Bible alone.
If the newcomer accepts this position they face an obvious first job if they are
to carry out what they are encouraged to do. In short they need to read it
to find out what it truly does say. In fact if they are to do this in an unbiased
manner they have to avoid any undue emotional or intellectual pressure from the
Christadelphians too. If they listen to the Christadelphians they will also
find that this has to be done in very specific ways and they have to be careful
about a huge number of factors.

For instance:

the need to read an accurate translation of the Bible, often seen to be the King
James Version, which uses archaisms and words we don’t frequently use today.

the need to look in concordances to check the root meanings of words.

the need to read passages in context.

the need to balance passages against each other.

This task is hugely difficult for most people to do and Christadelphians run courses
on “How to
Read the Bible Effectively” which themselves take many sessions to complete.

In reality no one becomes a Christadelphian without coming under the influence of
Christadelphians and “working the truth out for oneself” in fact is more often a
case of becoming persuaded by proof texts extended rather than a total and absolute
and independent exhaustive search of every possible perspective.

The real convert to the Christadelphian position in fact is taught to believe they
have “gained the Truth” and is trained to become a dogmatist forever contending
against other possibilities. The real emphasis is about proving rather than
about being independent minded. The more independent minded a person is in
fact the more difficult is it to believe the Christadelphian positions absolutely
and the more likely if converted they will later change. Those who need a
form of emotional expression will also find the diet of intellectual proving very
unsatisfying after a while.